Capitalismo, sustentabilidade e sobrevivência: uma análise ecocrítica de Duna, de Frank Herbert.

Abstract

With the worsening of the climate crisis across the planet, it is necessary to find ways to communicate this problem to society in a more personal way than through scientific data. This work proposes to carry out an ecocritical analysis of the novel Dune, originally published in 1965, by the American writer Frank Herbert, with the aim of drawing parallels between fiction and reality, in order to disseminate the novel as an environmentalist work. For that, a qualitative and bibliographical approach was used, analyzing the narrative text from the point of view of ecocriticism. The works Sense of Place and Sense of Planet by Ursula Heise (2008), Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor by Rob Nixon (2011) and Learning to Die in the Anthropocene by Roy Scranton (2015) served as the main theoretical contribution to support this analysis, which focuses on three instances of the Dune plot, the empire, the Fremen natives, and the protagonist Paul. In short, it was concluded that the organization of the empire reflects a wild and extreme capitalism that has no impediments or restrictions in the search for a false ideal of progress that devastates nature and does not care about human lives in risky situations. Fremen represent native peoples and their connection with nature, showing the need to rescue a sustainable way of life. Paul appears as a link between these two opposites, coming from an imperial family, but learning the Fremen ideals of survival and preservation in the natural world, serving as a model to be followed in the face of current environmental concerns. Finally, it was possible to affirm the presence of a mobilization of ecocriticism in Frank Herbert's novel and draw parallels with the real world, highlighting the narrative's potential to communicate the crisis in a more personal way to the reader.